Forehand MPH Question. Physics Experts Only!

Raul_SJ

G.O.A.T.
Forehand hit from the baseline cleared the net by three feet and bounced on the opposite baseline and was then buried into the back fence 5.0 feet high. Had to yank it out of the fence. About a quarter of the ball was in the fence.

Any way to estimate the forehand mph?
:unsure:
 

ForehandCross

G.O.A.T.
I know basic physics only, but without any idea of the resistive force applied by the fence, the rotational energy present in the ball initially, the coefficient of elasticity of the surface(the energy lost to ground) we can never guess the speed of the ball when it left the racquet
 

Raul_SJ

G.O.A.T.
I know basic physics only, but without any idea of the resistive force applied by the fence, the rotational energy present in the ball initially, the coefficient of elasticity of the surface(the energy lost to ground) we can never guess the speed of the ball when it left the racquet

More info for you: It was a cement hard court. Hand feed, so assume close to zero initial rotation and incoming velocity. You have the net clearance of three feet over the center of the net and bounce location at center of opposite baseline. So only a certain mph plus/minus 5 mph should produce that type of trajectory path.
 
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a12345

Professional
You really need some kind of time vs distance measurement.

In videos some people use frames per second of the video to calculate time and we know the size of the court to calculate how far the ball has moved at certain points. (click your keyboard arrow buttons to move 1 frame in youtube)

So number of frames moved / frames per second speed of the video will give you time.

e.g 20 frames/ 30fps = 0.666 seconds

tennis court is 78 feet = 0.01477 miles

0.666 seconds / 60 / 60 = 0.000185 hours

0.01477 miles / 0.000185 hours = 79.83 mph

So a ball that takes 20 frames to travel from one side of the court to the other on a 30fps video moved at 79.83 mph.
 

Curtennis

Hall of Fame
Physics expert here. Did you also run a control experiment side by side? I’m worried this could be a placebo effect. If my beaker wasn’t already full I’d totally put this on my Bunsen burner. For now just isolate the variable.

106 mph
 

Harry_Wild

G.O.A.T.
Just get to a tennis academy that has a speed gun built in to the court! Get a person in the academy to set it up so it registers your groundstrokes. Look at the display after hitting it or get an accumulation of each of your groundstrokes for you to view a minute or two later on.
 

Chas Tennis

G.O.A.T.
Repeat this shot with a video camera square on to the side of the trajectory.

D = t x v

D - distance travelled in one frame time.
t = frame time of the camera.
v = forehand speed.

100 MPH = 1760"/sec

at 100 MPH a ball travels 58.7" in a frame time of 1/30 second.
 
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sureshs

Bionic Poster
I tried some equations and got absurd answers. I don't think you can hit from the baseline at hip height (say 3 feet) and have it land on the opposite baseline with just a 3 foot net clearance. It will bounce before that.
 

zill

Legend
Forehand hit from the baseline cleared the net by three feet and bounced on the opposite baseline and was then buried into the back fence 5.0 feet high. Had to yank it out of the fence. About a quarter of the ball was in the fence.

Any way to estimate the forehand mph?
:unsure:

Can you do it again? That is the question.
 

SystemicAnomaly

Bionic Poster
@Raul_SJ @Chas Tennis
Use the equations of parabolic motion of a projectile
Might work for those who played tennis in a vacuum (in a fairly uniform gravitational field). Most of us do not. Both air drag and Magnus forces will affect the trajectory of the ball. Ball trajectories will deviate from a parabolic path a fair amount. This will happen in the tennis, cricket, baseball and other sports, especially with fast spinning balls.

With badminton shuttles there is very little or no Magnus effect present. However shuttles experience a considerable amount of air drag. High deep serves and clears will deviate from a parabolic path considerably. Badminton shuttles represent a rather extreme air drag case. But it does illustrate that even without Magnus forces present, air drag can have an appreciable effect on projectile trajectory.


 

SystemicAnomaly

Bionic Poster
Trajectories -- high air drag:

640px-Mplwp_ballistic_trajectories_badminton.svg.png
 

SystemicAnomaly

Bionic Poster
Too many unknowns. Launch angle and initial ball velocity. Spin type & magnitude. Humidity, elevation (altitude) / air pressure, wind direction & magnitude. Coefficient of restitution of the court surface. Ambient temperature. Ball temperature and other characteristics (rubber stiffness, internal air pressure, etc)

Amount & fluffiness of the ball felt will affect amount of air drag. Spin will affect pre-bounce trajectory as well as the height, angle -- nature of the bounce -- as well as the post bounce trajectory

How much the ball is embedded into the fence will also be affected by exactly how (where) the fence is contacted. If the ball impacts the fence squarely at an opening, it will inbed deeper than other impacts. The same ball might not inbed in the fence at all if it hits a metal intersection directly or sufficiently close to directly.

 

onehandbh

G.O.A.T.
Forehand hit from the baseline cleared the net by three feet and bounced on the opposite baseline and was then buried into the back fence 5.0 feet high. Had to yank it out of the fence. About a quarter of the ball was in the fence.

Any way to estimate the forehand mph?
:unsure:
Impossible to even make an estimate without more information, especialy on the amount of time it took to reach the fence. Speed is distance / time. With the information on the amount of time it took for this event, we can sort of work backwards and estimate the horizontal speed vector and loss of speed after the bounce, etc.

It's like asking someone how much force was applied to a punch and only giving the following information:
the guy took a big swing and it hit me in the stomach and it really hurt.
 

SystemicAnomaly

Bionic Poster
Impossible to even make an estimate without more information, especialy on the amount of time it took to reach the fence. Speed is distance / time. With the information on the amount of time it took for this event, we can sort of work backwards and estimate the horizontal speed vector and loss of speed after the bounce, etc.

It's like asking someone how much force was applied to a punch and only giving the following information:
the guy took a big swing and it hit me in the stomach and it really hurt.
Perhaps if you give us the size of the bruise left by the punch and how long it took for the bruise to disappear, then we could provide you with an educated guess.
 

SystemicAnomaly

Bionic Poster
Impossible to even make an estimate without more information, especialy on the amount of time it took to reach the fence. Speed is distance / time. With the information on the amount of time it took for this event, we can sort of work backwards and estimate the horizontal speed vector and loss of speed after the bounce, etc.

It's like asking someone how much force was applied to a punch and only giving the following information:
the guy took a big swing and it hit me in the stomach and it really hurt.
More details please. One-inch punch? Popeye windup punch?
popeye4.jpg

 

SystemicAnomaly

Bionic Poster
Precise calculation here:

math.png


To simplify, it is..

50883152-complex-math-formulas-on-whiteboard-mathematics-and-science-with-economics-concept-real-equations-sy.jpg


(please excuse my using of scrap paper. I did it in my spare time while solving a quantum mechanic equation for time travel in hypothetical 4th dimension with consideration for Dark Matters)
Almost there. This is a good first-order (ballpark) estimation. Need to dig deeper, more sophisticated math models, for any real semblance of precision.
 

a12345

Professional
Precise calculation here:

math.png


To simplify, it is..

50883152-complex-math-formulas-on-whiteboard-mathematics-and-science-with-economics-concept-real-equations-sy.jpg


(please excuse my using of scrap paper. I did it in my spare time while solving a quantum mechanic equation for time travel in hypothetical 4th dimension with consideration for Dark Matters)
You missed a minus sign in front of one of the variables. Im not gonna tell you which one. But just know that without it your equation falls apart so youre gonna have to trial and error it one by one.
 

Demented

Semi-Pro
I've charted a lot of video. Unless there was a ton of topspin, a coast to coast shot with 3 feet of net clearance is only 65 mph. If the ball was struck with 2500+ rpm then give it 75. Faster balls than that have to be much closer to the net to drop inside the baseline.
 

5263

G.O.A.T.
Forehand hit from the baseline cleared the net by three feet and bounced on the opposite baseline and was then buried into the back fence 5.0 feet high. Had to yank it out of the fence. About a quarter of the ball was in the fence.

Any way to estimate the forehand mph?
:unsure:
Imo, your best tool is to recreate the shot on the TW university program that would allow you to input speeds and spin to show several parameters for a shot hit at 3' over the net.
 

SystemicAnomaly

Bionic Poster
Precise calculation here:

math.png


To simplify, it is..

50883152-complex-math-formulas-on-whiteboard-mathematics-and-science-with-economics-concept-real-equations-sy.jpg


(please excuse my using of scrap paper. I did it in my spare time while solving a quantum mechanic equation for time travel in hypothetical 4th dimension with consideration for Dark Matters)
Everything, i'm currently learning algebra so maybe that'll explain my confusion
Make sure you have a good handle on that algebra. And trigonometry too. You will need them later if you ever survive and make it to calculus. In fact, they are often the most difficult part of calculus / differential equations

No idea what these equations really are. The dot over the p and the other variables (and constants) denotes that they are derivatives (calculus). Capital T usually indicates temperature. So p might be pressure in the first equation. However, p is often also commonly used for momentum. That might make sense since m is mass. L is commonly used for angular momentum.

I did a search on that first set of 6 equations. It did not match up with anything I found except for some joke memes:

 
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bitcoinoperated

Professional
No, there are far too many unknowns to even get a rough estimate with what you posted. Spin, roughness of the court, coefficient of restitution of the ball with the court, ball drag co-efficient etc.
 
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